What is Secularism? India Vs The West

 

The Term Secularism

Secularism is freedom to practice one space or belief, propagate it or to change it or not to have one according to one’s own conscience. The principle of separation of the state from religion and affair of the Civil Society and the public sphere and is not guided and dominated by religion.


Secularism provides equality and the term equality is in the context of religious belief or lack of them doesn't put any one and an advantage or disadvantage in public life, employment, education and before law.


Secularism in Indian Constitution


Our constitution widely explains the term secularism starting from the preamble itself where the term secular is used which means that our constitution does not provide any inequality or prioritization to one particular religion.


Article 25 of the Indian constitution also provides us freedom to propagate, profess, practice, also the most significant thing of this article is that it covers not only religious belief but religious practices ( ritual) as well, also this right is applicable not only to the citizens but non- citizens as well.


In order to give support to the linguistic and cultural importance of the minority which is the backbone of many communities reflecting their religious credence are also protected under Article 29 of the Indian Constitution.


You must have heard about UCC Uniform Civil Code which is added to our constitution under article 44 which seeks to protect religious sects, minorities and vulnerable communities but this is still a debating topic that is yet to be imposed throughout the country as UCC is not a fundamental right rather it comes under DPSP ( Directive Principle of State Policy).


Secularism in the West


The term secularism can be defined based on the region or a country it is imposed on the country’s in the west like US, the term secularism means where the state and the religion ( The Church) are two different entities rather an aggregate through which the country is united, they both play a different role in maintaining harmony and the religion is not combined with state protecting from communalism.

This is because the western countries has Christianity as a single, dominant and caste neutral religion and therefore focusing on less intra and inter religious conflicts.


Secularism in India


In case of India, secularism is a term that connects the state and religion in order to provide harmony and maintain stability in the country, this is because here we have multiple religions unlike the west where one dominates and due to this reason the inter and intra religious conflicts are at peak in our country and therefore the government plays a crucial role by imposing some laws in order to maintain unity and harmony among different religious groups.

Written By - Vanshu Verma